Life's guiltiest of pleasures: soap operas.

Category Archives: Guiding Light

Mandy Bruno and Rob Bogue, who play lovebirds Marina and Mallet on Guiding Light, are engaged in real life as well.
The soap stars, who were in Orlando last week for a fan event, spent some of their free time Friday at Discovery Cove, swimming with Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and relaxing on pristine beaches.
Bogue arranged for the dolphin, Jenny, to deliver a special love note written on a buoy to his new fiancee. The two plan to wed in 2010.
Discovery Cove is an all-inclusive park where, along with swimming with dolphins, guests can snorkel with rays and hand-feeding exotic birds in a free-flight aviary.

OK. Color me surprised. I’m actually digging Guiding Light‘s new format.
I had my doubts, but GL? Bravo.
In case you weren’t aware, there’ve been changes afoot at CBS’ venerable soap. The look has been seriously overhauled. (Here‘s an article about it on GL‘s Web site.)
For starters, instead of the two- to three-wall, open-top sets common on most soap sound stages, GL has taken a more realistic approach. Actors are playing their scenes in four-walled “rooms” complete with ceilings. The show has also established a wider array of permanent sets, immediately enhancing story line by enhancing atmosphere.

But my favorite tweak? The handheld cameras.
Surprising, I know, especially considering All My Children drove me bonkers not too long ago trying the same technique.
What’s the difference then? All I can say is that I know what works when I see it.
Something about the way GL is filming the scenes — cutting in close on actors, shooting over the shoulder of one character while he talks to another — has significantly upped the intimacy factor for me. It’s like watching a documentary that brings me inside the world of Springfield.
When AMC tried the handheld cameras, it felt disjointed, jarring and, most of all, too glitzy. Instead of adding to the scenes, the quick camera movements and music-video-like effects took me out of the moment.GL, however, has managed to bring an authenticity to the process. I feel like I’m standing right behind Alan (Ron Raines), looking over his shoulder while he tries to put the screws to Jon (Tom Pelphrey). I feel like I’m the one visiting Rick (Michael O’Leary) in jail, staring at his face between the bars. I feel like I’m the one watching through the tree branches as Lizzie (Marcy Rylan) and Dinah (Gina Tognoni) talk.
It’s fascinating, really, and fits well with the high-definition world in which so many of us now enjoy our soaps.

I’m sorry, but I can’t get past the basic skeeviness of Josh (Robert Newman) and Cassie (Nicole Forester) on Guiding Light. Not to knock the characters — individually they’re fine — but as a couple? The pairing just bothers me.
Josh isn’t the first soap guy to be involved with sisters, and I’m sure he won’t be the last. But something about his relationship with Cassie really gets my goat. Not that I know what “getting my goat” really means, but I assure you, if I had a goat, Cassie and Josh would have it firmly in their grasp.
Perhaps it’s the fact that GL is messing with its franchise couple, Reva and Josh. Reva, of course, is played by the wonderfully talented Kim Zimmer (I still think of Body Heat whenever I see her on screen). Although I expect this supercouple to hit a few potholes, maybe even a few sinkholes, in their journey, this Cassie thing is like a huge black hole, sucking out all that I ever appreciated about the characters, Josh in particular.
I get that Cassie adds conflict, but really, GL, couldn’t you have found some other way to spice up Josh and Reva’s relationship? All you’ve managed to do with this tasteless sister swap is to give me a bad case of viewers’ indigestion.